Singapore's New Public Housing Project Looks A Lot Like A Luxury Condo

Over 80 percent of Singapore's population lives in government housing.

That's because the cost of housing is astronomically expensive in the dense city-state. Generally, only millionaires live in private condos, while the rest of the population — anyone who makes under about US$97,000 per year — resides in public housing complexes.

But Singapore's version of public housing is glamorous, and looks much more like luxury condos than what we typically think of as public housing in the U.S.

I recently toured the Pinnacle @ Duxton, a public housing complex in Singapore that opened in 2010. There are 1,848 units — almost all of which are spacious and modern three-bedrooms — in the seven towers. The towers are connected by a furnished roof deck on the 50th floor, which has gyms, running tracks, playgrounds, and spectacular views of the city and harbor.

Of course the Pinnacle @ Duxton represents the higher end of public housing and plenty of people live in older units, but it also marks the direction that Singapore's Housing & Development Board (HDB) will go in the future.

Architecture firm ARC Studio constructed the complex with the goal of housing an extremely dense population in a very livable way. One of the ways they do that is with greenery: the outdoor spaces have gardens and leisure facilities.